British super-union seeks international unity by merging with American union

General unions Amicus and the T&G, which merge this month to form Unite, have taken a significant step towards global organisation by setting out a formal process for achieving a merger with the American United Steelworkers union (USW).

The three unions have established a merger exploration committee, which will lay down the foundation for a legal merger. If all goes according to plan, the new union will represent over 3.4 million members in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland. It would be the world's biggest union and would hope to attract other union organisations around the world into membership.

During the exploration process, the unions say they will engage in co-ordinated campaigning and common approaches to collective bargaining with multinationals.

Amicus general secretary Derek Simpson said: "Multinational companies are pushing down wages and conditions for workers the world over by playing one national workforce off against another...the only way working people can resist this is to organise and band together."

The announcement came soon after Amicus launched an international alliance with other unions in the world's largest print company, Chicago-based RR Donnelley. The aim is to co-operate with the other unions in their organising activities and to seek agreement with the company over core labour standards in its operations throughout the world.